What if the way you’ve learned to succeed is the very thing that’s exhausting you? In this episode I’m joined by Dr Pippa Grange - performance psychologist and coach with more than 25 years’ experience working with elite performers across sport and industry.

Formerly Head of People and Team Development at The Football Association, she worked closely with Gareth Southgate and the England men’s football team during their journey to the 2018 World Cup semi-finals. Today, her work draws on performance psychology and ecological thinking to help individuals and teams sustain excellence without burning out.

Together we explore how overperformance becomes a way of being - and why it so often leaves us depleted rather than fulfilled. Pippa invites us to rethink what it really means to perform well, offering a radically healthier vision of success - one that is regenerative rather than extractive, and feels as good as it looks.

We discuss:

If you want to perform well - without losing yourself in the process - this conversation is for you.

About Guest

Dr Pippa Grange is a performance psychologist and coach with more than 25 years in the field, working with some of the world’s top performers across sport and industry. 

Formerly Head of People and Team Development at The Football Association, she worked closely with Gareth Southgate’s England men’s football team and is widely credited for her pivotal role in their success reaching the 2018 World Cup semi-finals. 

Her transformative work was portrayed in the smash-hit national play ‘Dear England’, which is currently being adapted into a four-part TV drama for BBC One. Her practice today draws on ecopsychology and performance principles to help individuals and groups sustain and thrive in all their performance adventures.

Find out more at www.pippagrange.com

What does it really take to create a culture where people speak up - consistently and constructively? In this episode I’m joined by Stephen “Shed” Shedletzky to explore what makes it both safe and worth it for people to use their voice.

Shed is a leadership speaker, coach and author of Speak-Up Culture: When Leaders Truly Listen, People Step Up. As a thought leader on psychological safety in the workplace he helps leaders create environments where people feel able - and motivated - to contribute. 

Together we explore how fear shows up not only in the hesitation to speak, but in the resistance to hear, the ingredients that make a culture healthy or toxic, and why leadership is ultimately about care.

We discuss:

If you’ve ever held back from speaking up - or wondered why others aren’t telling you what you need to hear - this conversation offers a thoughtful and practical place to start.

About Guest

Stephen Shedletzky - or “Shed” to his friends - helps leaders make it safe and worth it for people to speak up. He supports humble leaders - those who know they are both part of the problems they experience and the solutions they can create - as they put people and purpose first.

A thought leader on psychological safety in the workplace, Shed is the author of Speak-Up Culture: When Leaders Truly Listen, People Step Up. He is a sought-after speaker, coach and advisor who has led hundreds of keynotes and leadership programs around the world.

For more than a decade, Shed worked at Simon Sinek, Inc., serving as Chief of Staff and Head of Brand Experience, Training & Development, where he led a global team of speakers and facilitators. He is a graduate of the Richard Ivey School of Business and received his coaching certification from The Co-Active Training Institute.

Find out more at shedinspires.com

What if fear isn’t weakness - but data? In this episode I’m joined by Susan Asiyanbi to explore what fear looks like in leadership - and what becomes possible when we stop pushing it down.

Susan is a strategist, pattern recogniser, and the person senior leaders call when facing their biggest leadership challenges. As CEO and founder of The Olori Network®, she and her team study what the strongest executives do differently - capturing the principles, practices and pitfalls of leadership - and bring those insights to bear in real time with CEOs and their teams.

Together we unpack how fear can hide in plain sight - in busyness, control, people-pleasing, or the pressure to prove you’re enough - and how those patterns ripple through teams when they go unnamed. Susan shares what shifts when leaders begin to treat fear as information, rather than weakness.

We discuss:

If you’re feeling stuck as a leader - this conversation will help you understand the patterns shaping your leadership and your team and offer a more freeing way to lead.

About Guest

Susan Asiyanbi is an executive advisor and operator with more than two decades of cross-sector leadership. She helps CEOs and senior teams navigate complexity, accelerate alignment, and strengthen the systems and relationships that drive performance.

Before founding The Olori Network®, Susan served as Chief Operating Officer at Teach For America, where she led operations across 51 regions and stewarded more than 2,000 staff — building high-performance teams capable of driving results while maintaining a strong culture, even amid significant change.

Earlier in her career, she held strategic and operational roles at Boston Consulting Group and Sears Holdings Corporation. Through The Olori Network®, Susan brings together everything she has learned: that strategy and culture must move together, and that leadership is ultimately about relationships, trust, and clarity in action.

Find out more at www.olorinetwork.com  

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-asiyanbi/

Is curiosity just a personality trait - or a skill we can practise and develop? In this episode I’m joined by Dr. Jeff Wetzler to explore what shapes our capacity for curiosity - and how fear can interfere with it, especially when we need it most.

Jeff is a leadership and learning expert and the author of Ask: Tap Into the Hidden Wisdom of People Around You. His work helps leaders and teams surface hidden insights, make smarter decisions, strengthen collaboration and unlock breakthrough ideas.

Together we unpack how fear can narrow our perspective and draw us toward certainty when questions might serve us better. We explore how curiosity - when developed intentionally - can strengthen the quality of our decisions, relationships and leadership.

We discuss:

If you value curiosity - but notice it’s hardest to access under pressure - this conversation offers a thoughtful and practical way forward.

About Guest

Dr. Jeff Wetzler is co-Founder and co-CEO of Transcend, an education innovation organization, and served as Chief Learning Officer at Teach For America. He has advised business, NGO, and government leaders around the world and has spoken at major companies such as Microsoft, Google, Deloitte, and DaVita, as well as startups and leading nonprofits.

His book, Ask: Tap Into the Hidden Wisdom of People Around You for Unexpected Breakthroughs In Leadership and Life, was named an Amazon Editor’s Pick for Best Books of 2024, a Next Big Idea Club Top Leadership Book of 2024, and widely endorsed by experts such as Adam Grant, Seth Godin, and Amy Edmondson. His work is regularly featured in leading publications including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Psychology Today. 

Wetzler earned a Doctorate in Adult Learning and Leadership from Columbia University and a Bachelor’s in Psychology from Brown University. He is a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network and is an Edmund Hillary Fellow. 

Find out more at www.askapproach.com

How competitive are we really - and what’s fear got to do with it? In this episode I’m joined by Ruchika T. Malhotra - global inclusion strategist and author of Uncompete - to question one of the most dominant assumptions in modern work and life: that success requires competition.

We’re often told that competition drives performance, innovation and excellence. But what if it’s also driven by fear - fear of scarcity, fear of falling behind, fear that if someone else wins, we lose?

In this conversation, we unpack the fear that underlies the logic of “survival of the fittest” and explore what becomes possible when we choose collaboration over rivalry.

Together we explore:

If you’ve ever felt the pressure to prove, outperform or outshine - this conversation invites a different way forward.

About Guest

Ruchika T. Malhotra is the author of Uncompete: Rejecting Competition to Unlock Success. She is also the founder of Candour, a global inclusion strategy firm. A former business journalist, her writing appears regularly in publications such as Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, Forbes, Bloomberg, The Seattle Times, and more. Named LinkedIn Top Voice for Gender Equality and selected to Thinkers50 Radar, she is a keynote speaker on leadership, workplace culture and the Uncompete™ framework. She has previously held adjunct faculty positions at Seattle University and the University of Washington, where she now advises the Communication Leadership graduate program.

Her last book, Inclusion on Purpose, was The MIT Press' top selling book of 2022 and called "transformative" by Dr. Brené Brown.

Find out more at www.ruchika.co

What makes people feel like they matter - and what happens when they don’t? In this episode I’m joined by Zach Mercurio - researcher, author of The Power of Mattering, and one of the leading voices on meaningful work - to explore the primal human need to matter, and the fears that surface when that need goes unmet.

For more than twenty years, organisations have tried to foster employee engagement with programmes, platforms and perks. But through his research, Zach discovered that the “disengagement problem” is really a mattering problem.

When people don’t feel seen, valued or significant to others, something shifts. 3 in 10 people say they feel invisible at work, 65% feel perpetually underappreciated, and 8 in 10 experience loneliness in any given week. These aren’t just wellbeing statistics - they’re signals. And beneath them, we often find fear.

Together, we explore the subtle and often unintentional ways workplaces create anti-mattering - and what happens as a result.

We discuss:

If you’ve ever felt unseen at work - or wondered how to build a workplace culture where people can truly thrive - this conversation will help you understand what’s really at stake.

About Guest

Zach Mercurio is an author, researcher, and leadership development facilitator specializing in purposeful leadership, mattering, and meaningful work. He advises leaders in organizations worldwide on practices for building cultures that promote well-being, motivation, and performance.

Zach holds a Ph.D. in organizational learning, performance, and change and serves as one of Simon Sinek’s Optimist Instructors, teaching a top-rated course on creating mattering at work. His new book is The Power of Mattering: How Leaders Can Create a Culture of Significance. His previous book is The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with The Power of Authentic Purpose. He’s been featured in The Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Psychology Today, The Denver Post, and on ABCNews.

Find out more at www.zachmercurio.com

Is there space to think, breathe, or connect in your workday? In this episode, I talk with leadership thinker and mindfulness researcher Megan Reitz about the tension between doing and being – and how fear, power and pressure keep us stuck in overdrive.

Megan is an Associate Fellow at Oxford’s Saïd Business School and co-author of Speak Up and Speak Out, Listen Up. Her latest research explores spaciousness - a different kind of attention that opens up creativity, connection and compassion.

Together we examine how workplace culture often rewards busyness over awareness - and what we lose when we constantly prioritise speed, certainty and performance.

We explore:

This is a thoughtful, expansive conversation that doesn’t just talk about making space - it invites you to feel it. Grounded in both research and lived experience, it helps us examine our defaults, rethink productivity, and reconnect with what matters.

If you’ve ever said, “I’d love to slow down… but I just don’t have time,” this one’s for you.

About Guest

Megan is Associate Fellow at Saïd Business School, Oxford University and Adjunct Professor of Leadership and Dialogue at Hult International Business School. She focuses on how we create the conditions for transformative dialogue at work and her research is at the intersection of leadership, change, dialogue and mindfulness. She is on the Thinkers50 ranking of global business thinkers and HR Magazine’s list of Most Influential Thinkers. 

Her books include Speak Up and the updated Speak Out, Listen Up, shortlisted for the CMI Management Book of the Year. Her TED talk on employee activism has been viewed over 1.5 million times, and her research has been featured by the BBC, CNBC, Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan.

She is mother to two wonderful teenage daughters who test her regularly on her powers of mindfulness and dialogue.

Find out more at https://www.meganreitz.com/

What if leadership isn’t about the hero – but the ecosystem? In this conversation, I talk with leadership coach and TED Fellow David McQueen about fear, ego, and why we need systemic leadership now more than ever.

David is an international speaker, business advisor and author of The BRAVE Leader: More Courage, Less Fear, Better Decisions for Inclusive Leadership. His work spans global corporations, nonprofits and public sector organisations – helping leaders make braver, more inclusive decisions in a world that often rewards speed, certainty and control.

Together, we unpack how fear shows up in leadership, risk-taking, and organisational culture – and how to move beyond performative leadership into something more purposeful, sustainable and real.

We explore:

If you’ve ever felt the pressure to prove yourself, lead from the front, or react fast – this episode invites you to lead differently: from courage, not control.

About Guest

David McQueen is a leadership coach, international speaker and facilitator. He is the co-founder of professional development company Q Squared Ltd, the host of The BRAVE Leader podcast, and a blogger on all things leadership and culture change.

David’s work has taken him all over the world, working in both profit and non-profit sectors. His clients include Aviva, JP Morgan, Bloomberg, Google, Facebook, Mercedes-Benz, Tate & Lyle and UnLtd. He is also a three-time TEDx speaker and a TED Fellow.

He is the author of The BRAVE Leader: More Courage. Less Fear. Better Decisions for Inclusive Leadership - a practical guide to navigating leadership with integrity, clarity, and courage.

Find out more at https://davidmcqueen.co.uk/

What does neuroscience tell us about trust, fear, and how we work together? In this episode I chat with Dr. Paul Zak to explore how the brain responds to fear and stress – and what that means for leadership, teamwork and performance at work.

A pioneer in the neuroscience of trust, Paul shares insights from two decades of research into what drives collaboration, motivation and emotional fitness in the workplace. From high-stakes trading floors to Silicon Valley, he reveals why fear is a poor long-term motivator – and how trust, connection and challenge are key to building high-performing teams.

We discuss:

We also explore how Paul’s research helps us recognise and rethink High-Functioning Fear – when fear hides behind overperformance, people-pleasing or control – and how organisations can move from survival mode to spaces where people truly thrive.

If you’re curious about the science of human connection, emotional fitness and what makes work truly work – this one’s for you.

About Guest

Dr. Paul J. Zak is a neuroscientist, author and Distinguished University Professor at Claremont Graduate University, ranked among the top 0.3% of most cited scientists. His two decades of research on trust, fear and human connection have taken him from the Pentagon to Fortune 50 boardrooms and remote villages in Papua New Guinea.

He’s the author of several books, including The Trust Factor and Immersion: The Science of the Extraordinary and the Source of Happiness, and is the founder of Immersion Neuroscience. A four-time tech entrepreneur and regular TED speaker, his work has featured in The New York Times, The Economist, and Scientific American. His latest project, Your6, is a free app that helps people track happiness using neuroscience.

Find out more at https://pauljzak.com and https://your6.com

How does fear show up in conflict at work - and what can we do about it? In this episode I’m joined by author and workplace dynamics expert Amy Gallo to explore how fear fuels everything from avoidance to artificial harmony - and how we can work through it with curiosity, courage and emotional intelligence.

Amy is known for her work on communication, difficult conversations and healthy workplace relationships. She shares insights from her bestselling book Getting Along and her years of experience helping teams navigate interpersonal tensions and toxic behaviours.

Together we unpack how fear manifests in conflict - not just as anger, but also as silence, people-pleasing or endless busyness. And how tools like emotional regulation, intellectual humility and clear communication can help us build real psychological safety, not just the illusion of harmony.

We explore:

If you’ve ever found yourself walking on eggshells, stuck in surface-level agreement, or unsure how to speak up without setting off alarm bells - this one’s for you.

About Guest

Amy Gallo is a workplace expert who writes and speaks about gender, interpersonal dynamics, difficult conversations, feedback, and effective communication. She is the best-selling author of Getting Along: How to Work with Anyone (Even Difficult People) and the HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict, as well as hundreds of articles for Harvard Business Review. 

For the past four years, Amy has co-hosted HBR’s popular Women at Work podcast, which examines the struggles and successes of women in the workplace. She is frequently sought out by media outlets for her perspective on workplace dynamics, conflict, and difficult conversations. 

Her advice has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Marketplace, Bloomberg Business, and NPR, as well as on WNYC, the BBC, and ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).

Find out more at www.amyegallo.com